Two More Boys Charged with Insulting Erdogan, Police Raid Opposition TV
Local Editor
Police in Turkey stormed the offices of an opposition television station days before the country goes to the polls. The media outlet is linked to an Islamic preacher opposed to President Tayyip Recep Erdogan.
The incident took place outside the offices of Kanalturk and Bugun TV in Istanbul, while footage was broadcast live on Bugun's website.
There were large scuffles outside the offices, where there was also a heavy police presence. Police seemed to be using pepper spray against those trying to block their path through the gate and into the building.
After a struggle, dozens of police eventually made their way through the crowd and into the building. A water cannon on the street was also used to keep demonstrators away.
The media groups are owned by Koza Ipek Holding, which has links to the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is a political foe of the current Turkish President Erdogan. Gulen lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.
On Tuesday, the authorities took over the management of 22 companies that were owned by Koza Ipek.
Gulen was once an ally of Erdogan, but the two fell out after police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to the preacher opened a corruption investigation against the inner circle of the Turkish president, then prime minister, in 2013. This is believed to have resulted in the crackdown against Gulen.
Gulen is facing charges of running a "parallel" structure within state institutions that was looking to topple Erdogan. Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of up to 34 years for Gulen.
This comes as Turkish prosecutors have charged two schoolboys aged 12 and 13 with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after they tore down a poster of him, local media reports said Wednesday.
It is the latest case in which youngsters have been hauled before the courts in Turkey on similar charges, fuelling concerns about freedom of speech under Erdogan.
The prosecutor in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir is seeking jail terms of between 14 months and four years and eight months for the pair, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.
It said the two were caught in May ripping down the Erdogan poster on a Diyarbakir street but defended themselves saying they just wanted to sell the paper.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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